There may not be a new sponsor yet, however 20 books appear on the long list for the international Women’s Prize for Fiction and although there are certain predictable inclusions, such as Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies, Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour and Zadie Smith’s NW, it is great to see such a diverse range of excellent books.
I have managed to read a few already, here are links to my reviews of Elif Shafak’s Honour, M.L.Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans and Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life. I enjoyed all three books, but won’t be trying to guess the winner, it’s much too subjective to choose, read the reviews and see what appeals to you. I am sure there is something for everyone.
There is an interesting article in The Guardian today with links to a synopsis and reviews for all of the books. They include reader reviews as well as journalist reviews. The Guardian Bookshop is an interesting alternative for buying new books in the UK, particularly as they don’t charge an additional delivery charge for every book.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2013 is awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman. Any woman writing in English of any nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter is eligible. The shortlist will be announced on April 16. Happy Reading!
The Longlist of 20 novels
Kitty Aldridge A Trick I Learned From Dead Men
Kate Atkinson Life After Life
Ros Barber The Marlowe Papers
Shani Boianjiu The People of Forever are Not Afraid
Gillian Flynn Gone Girl
Sheila Heti How Should A Person Be?
A M Homes May We Be Forgiven
Barbara Kingsolver Flight Behaviour
Deborah Copaken Kogan The Red Book
Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies
Bonnie Nadzam Lamb
Emily Perkins The Forrests
Michèle Roberts Ignorance
Francesca Segal The Innocents
Maria Semple Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Elif Shafak Honour
Zadie Smith NW
M L Stedman The Light Between Oceans
Carrie Tiffany Mateship with Birds
G. Willow Wilson Alif the Unseen
Word by Word 
Thanks for this update Claire. Now all we need are links to your reviews……. 🙂 Happy reading! I’m thinking I might start with the Light between the Oceans…….
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There are two links there for you Edith, I’ll be adding a few to the reading list and hope to do so before the shortlist appears. 🙂
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It is a great list isn’t it?! Happy reading 🙂
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I’m not sure I am as brave as you to take on the Marlowe novel Tracy, fortunately there is plenty to choose from!
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It’s a really interesting list, much more varied than these lists usually are. here are several that I’m really looking forward to reading.
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I agree, not having a sponsor doesn’t seem to have affected the quality and diversity of the selection.
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Thanks for posting the list, Claire, and for linking your reviews. I always appreciate and rely on your comments! I’m going to reblog your post today as these are all fabulous suggestions for the toppling TBR pile!
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As soon as I saw you’d arrived here Patricia, I thought, oh no, that mounting TBR!! Mine too, I want to read so much and now there are even more new titles, but such a great list to read from and to support and share!
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I’ve read only a few of them and am looking forward to reading more. If only there were more hours in the day…
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Aint that the truth 🙂
A few is doing pretty well Nessa, I remember when the Booker list came out and I hadn’t read any of them, I feel much better about this list and at least I’ve heard of many of them.
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Reblogged this on Patricia Sands' Blog and commented:
Is your TBR pile in danger of toppling, like mine? Thank goodness we have the choice of creating our literary towers in the virtual world now. Book reviewer extraordinaire, Claire McAlpine, has just posted the long list for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2013. I’ve only managed to read a few of these titles so have already added others to my tower. Which ones have you read or added? Are you prepared to predict a winner at this point?
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Claire, I referenced your post above in my post today – this is just too big to not shout and scream about it!!! My favourite time of the year….now to start reading……wouldn’t it be cool to form a ‘judge’s panel’ of our own……. Thanks again for the reminder of something I’ve waiting for but, OMG, almost missed!!!!!
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Thank you for the reblog Edith, I hope you are enjoying the reviews and deciding which books to read. I don’t think I could cope with having to judge, what a painful process that must be!
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What a great list! Personally, I’m rooting for Maria Semple’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” (reviewed on my blog in January, I think). It’s insightful, funny, and one of the few books on the topic of finding yourself after babies that includes the family as a vital part of the solution.
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I’m keen to read that one too Naomi and I’ll be checking out your review, a good friend read it recently and loved it.
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I haven’t realised they added more on the shortlist (20) than previous year’s 12. I think it’s a lot of reading to do if I want to read the longlist, I suppose I will pick and choose and eventually read the shortlists. I look forward to compare notes with you. 🙂
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Yes, Alex mentioned the same thing, its an almost impossible task for anyone who reads and/or reviews to be able to have a view of them all, but then I suppose the list will endure for a long time, its always a case of pick and choose for me.
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Wish I could read some of them… one day.
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And if you could, which might you start with Nelle?
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Wonderful to know that the Orange Prize longlist has come out! It is great that you have already read three books from the longlist. I have Barbara Kingsolver’s ‘Flight Behavior’ and Zadie Smith’s ‘NW’ on my shelf waiting to be read. I don’t know what I am waiting for. It is interesting that Gillian Flynn’s ‘Gone Girl’ is there on the longlist. It was nice to see A.M.Homes’ book on the longlist. I read her previous book ‘This Book Will Save Your Life’ a few years back and I remember liking it. It is also interesting to see Michèle Roberts on the list. The first time I heard of her was a few days back when I saw a preface written by her in a Penguin edition of ‘Madame Bovary’. It is fascinating how after we encounter a new name once, we keep seeing it again and again in the next few days. It is great to know that she is a distinguished writer on her own. I would love to read one of her books. Hope you have fun reading the books on the Orange prize longlist!
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I enjoy reading Barbara Kingsolver and loved her last book The Lacuna which I didn’t read until about a year after it won the Orange prize. I am reading NW now, which has had mixed reviews, but I lived in NW London for many years, just off the Kilburn High Road and so both the area and many of its characters are familiar to me, I can’t wait to dive into that today. I haven’t read Michèle Roberts either, but have seen her name over the years and have a copy of Ignorance on my kindle so will give that a go too.
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